Typical distributed storage systems include a storage manager device, which is sometimes referred to as a proxy, coupled to multiple storage nodes. The storage manager device is configured to receive data uploaded from a client device and transmit the data to several of the storage nodes for storage therein, as copies (“replicas”). Similarly, when a client device requests the data, the storage manager device requests the data from one of the storage nodes that stored a replica of the data, based on load balancing policies or other rules. The storage manager device then receives the data and transmits the data to the client device. In some distributed storage systems, the storage nodes include hard disk drives (HDDs) and solid state drives (SSDs), which provide faster read and write times than HDDs. In such systems, a determination to store data in the SSD rather than the HDD is applied across all of the storage nodes that are to store the data, such that the each of the storage nodes stores the data in their respective SSD rather than their HDD.